The present invention relates to apparatus for the automatic operation of sliding doors, particularly sliding doors of motor vehicles.
An increasing number of motor vehicles, such as, for example, small trucks, vans and motor coaches of small capacity, are equipped with sliding doors having a compressed air or other installation to operate the door(s) automatically. In these vehicles there is commonly a side door which is displaced along a longitudinal plane parallel and close to that of the side wall of the bodywork, with which it is brought flush on reaching the closed position by means of a final phase of combined movement in the longitudinal and transverse directions.
None of the known automatic operating systems have proved to be completely satisfactory for application to such vehicles and, when destined for the conveyance of passengers, it is generally a statutory requirement for such vehicles to be equipped with an automatic system for operating the doors.